My link no longer works. I tried a couple of weeks ago as well, so I'm fairly sure the address is no longer good. I scanned the website and clicked a few links, but they all lead me nowhere. Anyone have a new link? Otherwise, I'll try and email the author. Thanks!

If you wanted to do your own literature program and study only one book of literature (really in-depth) each year (K-8), which books would you pick? Other literature would be read throughout the year, but one book that is really studied for literary analysis, grammar, virtues, connections, and interesting conversation?

Calvert Spelling CDs work well for us and you have the added bonus of typing practice. :)

Here is the link to the close-ups of the books: http://www.bfbooks.com/s.nl/it.A/id.456/.f?sc=2&category=2 (Scroll down) I bought most of them used. Amazon is probably the cheapest - and they have free shipping after $25.00. I also saw on here that they are running a $10.00 off sale.

We are using it and really enjoying it. I bought it to help dd10 who still struggles with spelling. We use it along with Calvert Spelling. I have found SS to work better than I had imagined. It is fun - even dd4 takes part from time to time with the two to four letter words. We are still in book 1, so I hesitate to recommend it yet - but so far, so good.

I have to agree with pressure washing. (If you can afford it, I would have someone else do it.) We just had our house pressure washed today - for the first time. The difference is absolutely amazing. We paid two professionals to do the house (it is two story and on nine-foot stilts) but my dh wouldn't have wanted to do it regardless. They were FILTHY when they were done. For the $200 we paid, I think we could charge an extra $5,000 if selling. The house looks ten years newer and so clean and fresh. You really don't see the grime, the cobwebs, the mildew, the dust everywhere until you see what your house actually looks like clean. They did the stairways and the sidewalk as well. The whole yard looks better now. :) We stood outside gawking for fifteen minutes at least.

I believe they do now have a Saxon 4 with workbooks that follows Saxon 3. I've never used it, but I think I have seen it. - - - - I really like both the K-3 and the 5/4 - 7/6 books. They have worked well for all of my children. I do plan to switch programs after 7/6. I'm not sure I like the upper books as well. I am currently working through three different pre-algebra books before making a final decision.

I didn't realize Hewitt Publishing was a Christian Publisher. I just read their statement of faith. The first sentence states that they maintain a Christian perspective in all research and curriculum. So, how much Christian perspective is in the Lightning Literature guides? I didn't notice anything in the sample of LL7. Are the written assignments and discussion questions more focused on a Christian worldview? I noticed Hewitt uses Apologia, Abeka and a couple of history writers I would consider to have a very Christian-view for their other subjects. Is Lightning Literature similar?

I have had only good experiences in buying used and purchase most of my curriculum that way. The couple of bad books I have gotten from book mooch really don't make any difference in the long run. But, I have decided I am not SELLING any book or curriculum under $50.00 after this year. With postage and gas to the post office it is not worth it. I just finished selling fifty auctions worth of things on ebay, yesterday. After the ebay costs, postage costs, packaging costs and the cost of gas, I think I will likely lose money. (The only benefit has been the 100+ books off my shelf.) From now on I am just donating old books and curriculum.

Wow! I'm shocked to see the responses here. I wonder if those who do not feel isolated by their communities simply have not answered? We are way out in the country so we are isolated in that sense. But our little town has been very accepting. My kids are in karate and the karate instructor announces all community functions. We go to the Fourth of July celebration, the Halloween party, etc. We rarely use the library but one time that we did the librarian asked if I homeschooled and when I said that I did, she pointed out another woman in the library that ran a homeschool support group for the local counties. We do not belong to any homeschool groups (the only one in the area is religious.) We have been asked to join a couple of churches, but we have politely declined and it has never been brought up again. Our town seems quite friendly and accepting despite being very small (700 people) and certainly in the Bible belt. My kids don't have neighborhood children to play with or anything. But the kids from karate are great, everyone is nice at the local events and we feel we can count on any of our neighbors in an emergency and I hope they know they could count on us. I guess that is all we are looking, as we are very happy living in this community. We moved from a much larger city with lots of homeschool groups and neighbors, but it felt crowded and so many people on top of each other seemed to bring out the worst in the people around us. :)

I believe Louise Erdrich writes with multiple narrators. I read Antelope Wife and I seem to remember it jumping between narrators. I had to read it for a college class and I think the professor said it was typical of her writing style.

Britax makes car seats with a 5-point harness, up to 80 lbs. They are expensive, but obviously not compared to the price of a new car. :)

Thanks so much!! I had no idea I was missing out on such great resources. Our library is quite small and has not yet caught up to current trends such as downloadable anything. But I have bookmarked all of the great audiobook sites (my dh is going to love the speeches) and I am going to try http://www.storynory.com for my two little ones while the older two are working on their math. :)

Thanks!!! :D I just downloaded an Arthur Scott Bailey story to listen to tomorrow while we clean. They have a wonderful selection. I can't believe I've never checked that website out before.

Is there a site for free (or very minimally priced) audiobooks that can be downloaded to the computer? I am looking for stories that we can listen to from the computer as we are doing our housecleaning and dishes.

Thanks for the responses! I do have the Veritas Press curriculum objectives bookmarked. And I own the Core Knowledge series (and I've read the Latin Centered Curriculum :).) So I do have a general idea of what I want to accomplish. I know what subjects I want covered, etc. My problem is that I feel I am too curriculum-focused rather than goal-focused. I like to work backwards as well. I know what I want for the children by the time they graduate. But rather than a set of curriculum to complete, I would like goals or objectives to be met that progress in difficulty. Does that make sense? So, since I know I want them to read Latin and Greek with some fluency and be able to write several types of essays, I would like to have a set of progressive goals or benchmarks to get to that point - rather than just do this Latin curriculum, this writing curriculum, etc. For some reason, I am having a much harder time writing this out than I would have thought. This makes me think I am too dependent on the curriculum and don't really have a solid understanding of what I want to accomplish year to year. Or I don't have a true understanding of how to get from A to Z and am just focused on choosing a decent curriculum and hoping for the best. OK, I'm rambling. :blush:

I'll have a dd in K and a ds in PreK this year. For dd K: Saxon Math 1 Hooked on Phonics Draw Write Now The first half of Oak Meadow 1 Nature Study / walking Lots of read alouds Karate For ds PreK: Nature Study / walking Sitting in on any read alouds Karate when he turns 4

I would like to write out my goals to be met before graduation - subject by subject. A progressive list, not necessarily linked to grade level of what I hope my children will accomplish or acquire for each subject from beginning to end. I would love to see other people's goals or objectives, if anyone has written their own list and would like to share? Thanks!

I have three picture books that we really enjoy. I find the writing to be quite good and the pictures are beautiful. Bearskin by Howard Pyle, illustrated by Trina Hyman Young Lancelot by Robert D. San Souci, Illustrated by Jamichael Henterly (There is also Young Guinevere and Young Merlin, but I haven't read them.) Excalibur written and illustrated by Hudson Talbott

DD is 8, but will be 9 when she finishes. She would be going into 3rd, so we started it at the end of 2nd grade (in public school grades.)

We are going to use History of US combined with Teaching Company's Early American History DVDs. I think the DVDs are still on sale and I bought the History of US set used. (It can be pricey new.) We loved the John Adams mini-series as well and will add a few historical fiction pieces.

I just bought the Early American History to use this coming year. I hope to preview the first disc this weekend. I was told that the instructor dresses up in costume for each lecture. It comes with a study guide that has a few vocab words, several comprehension questions and a couple of essay questions for each lesson. The study guide includes the answers to all of the comprehension questions and the main points that should be covered in each essay question. It also comes with the standard TC course guidebook that has an outline of each lesson. The outlines are much simpler than in the standard TC courses. The recommended text to go with the course is The Story of America by Garraty. It does include a few other suggested books. I plan to use History of US since I will be using it with younger students rather than high school age students. (To clarify, TC does not mention History of US - it is simply what I own and plan to use.)

I have found that I cannot use it across the curriculum. I really like the philosophy behind Classical Writing so we use it as a supplemental writing program, but I decided to use another curriculum (MCT) for more modern writing in other subject areas. That said, Diogenes does cover standard (modern) essay writing at the very end. And I believe the later books will cover more standard writing as well simply because the progym and standard methods become more aligned further on (argumentative essay, compare/contrast, etc.) In the long run I think using only Classical Writing would work out fine. If you would like your children writing across the curriculum at an earlier age (before the end of Diogenes -so 7th or 8th grade) it is easier to use another curriculum.

Saxon and Singapore

Hermione (Harry Potter) Annie (Do children still watch that musical?) Wendy, Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily